Chapter 29 - Investigation

Zelos saw Irlan looking at Kaitrine with curious eyes… he could tell that he was itching to ask some questions about that, but Kaitrine was far too reserved to reveal much about her. In any case, the grass reached the neck of the horses, but at least there were no signs of obstacles there or anything that could hurt them. It didn’t mean that they liked that place. Eventually, morning came, and they reached their destination…

— —

Twenty years ago, just when Hei had become the head of the clan, things were quite chaotic in his territory. His father had died in the middle of a large campaign and that left him with many problems to solve. Although he had prepared himself to succeed him, Hei eventually found himself with problems that apparently had no end.

Somehow, he managed to finish that campaign and then help another territory withstand the attack of the enemies. Still, when he returned home, he soon received a bunch of reports about traveling merchants that had been robbed during the war.

“This didn’t happen before… a new group of bandits came from another territory to ours?”

“Most likely, sir. I have heard that a bandit group that was hard to catch has been moving around the whole country for many years. The group apparently is very small, but they are skilled. Their leader also has a bounty of ten sunstone coins in his head.”

Hei opened his eyes widely after hearing that from his assistant, it was a lot of money, but it made sense considering that this group has been causing problems for many years. He asked a few things about the bandits and the rumors were weird. First of all, the bandits didn’t kill anyone. Second, they always targeted rich merchants who had a bad reputation.

“It seems this bandit group here managed to avoid being caught because the population doesn’t see them as someone evil, but someone that is on the side of those who don’t have much. Perhaps he even gives some gifts for those who don’t have much in exchange of information about his targets. He is smart…”

Hei knew that he had to make his move fast… as far as he knew, there were no greedy merchants in his territory, but he was still getting used to the management of his land, he didn’t know much about that kind of thing. His father was more of a military leader, so he probably ignored those kinds of issues as long as the other person proved to be an ally and helped to keep his forces armed and armored. Regardless, it was only a matter of time before the population began to take the bandits’ side.

After hearing about the reports, Hei marked the location of the attacks and confirmed that they all happened in the same Northeast area of the territory. South and North of a troublesome area filled with grass and hills. One didn’t have to be a genius to know that the bandits were hiding there, and they probably had many traps set in there for infantry and cavalry.

Any large force would be seen from miles away, so heading there during the day would be useless, going at night would put them at risk of falling for traps. They didn’t know how the bandits would deal with a force that could fight them… they probably wouldn’t take them lightly. In the end, Hei had an idea…

— —

The leader of the bandits was watching his underlings drinking the last cask of wine that they had stolen last week. They were completely wasted, and they spent the last few days just like that.

In the meantime, the bandit leader was completely sober while watching them. At least he didn’t have to hide his annoyance since they couldn’t see anything clearly in that state.

“I need better friends… I will be satisfied with getting better allies at least, we don’t need to be friends.”

His name was Kai, a twenty years old man who had been terrorizing the rich merchants of the country since he was ten. He was a war orphan who had escaped from his master and decided to have revenge against all those who closely resembled him. Thanks to that, he joined a group like that without thinking twice, but ten years later, he was starting to regret that.

Kai wondered why he just didn’t kill those guys since he hated them that much… he killed his first target, so perhaps his desire for revenge died with him since that was also his former master. Regardless, leaving them alive would mean that he always would have targets, but also means that he will never stop working like that. The targets that had their stuff stolen more than five times decided to move from the area, some of them even moved to other countries, such was the skill of the group after Kai became the leader.

Before he could become even more annoyed, Kai decided to leave them alone and then look for information about the next target.

Three hours later, Kai had arrived at the closest village to his hideout. It was already dark, the dinner time was long gone, but there were still some lights around. Still, he didn’t have to reveal himself. He just approached the back of a random house and then found a note there above a barrel. He left a couple of coins at the bottom of the barrel and then he left.

“A cheese and wine cargo, huh? The amount is pretty large… three wagons. We should wait for him to sell half of it.”

There was also information that the merchant would have three guards with him. But since the merchants tended to be stingy, those guys would all be pushovers. Kai would be able to knock them out before they could even think about what had happened to them.

The merchant was also coming from the North and heading in their direction, so they only had to wait for a couple of days and then they would get another easy job. Still, they got lucky in the last month, thanks to the war, but Kai’s instincts told him that they shouldn’t stay there for long. Things in the north were better since a council of merchants was ruling there, and he only heard nasty things about them.

Two days later, the group was ready to ambush the merchant and his cargo… they were lying in wait on the hills while watching the surroundings. The road ahead was several kilometers away, but soon, they received a raven from a scout telling them that the target had left the closest village and was about to arrive. 

“Let’s go… and follow the plan as usual. Don’t grow complacent.”

The bandits were already grinning, so Kai felt a wave of headache starting to bother him… perhaps it was time to change professions. He had some money saved up, after all. Those guys were going to get him killed at some point…

The group began to move while staying closer to the ground. They were at least using the tactics that Kai had developed. While wearing dark green cloaks and staying close to the ground, they could mix their movements with the movements of the grass and plants around.

The raven had sent the message that things were going as planned and the scout could tell that the guards would be easy to knock down. The rest would be just the usual shakedown to scare the merchant. 

When they could see the road, all of them stopped moving. A couple of minutes later, they could see the wagons emerging from the distance, so they just watched until the wagon was right in front of them. However, Kai felt that something was off. The merchant driving the wagon didn’t look nervous at all…, and even the merchants that they didn’t attack got nervous when they passed in that area.

Kai decided to cancel the attack, but his underlings soon got up from their hideout and then charged toward the wagons. His instincts warned him of the danger even more when he saw the wagon slowly losing speed… they had fallen for a trap.

“Wait! Retreat! Retreat!

The three guards jumped from the wagons as well… and they didn’t look dangerous at all… they were overweight and quite slow, but their calm and lazy expressions soon changed to one of focus.

They had fifteen bandits on their side, while the defending side had only three, but soon, even the driver jumped from the wagon and grabbed a sword from it. He also looked pretty calm. The bandits didn’t hesitate to swing their weapons at them. They always wished that the targets would resist and give them the excuse to attack them. Still, the big guys suddenly raised their arms and blocked the attacks… their unprotected arms began to bleed a fair bit, but they ignored the pain and then charged forward, slamming their heads and necks with their thick arms.

The bandits were knocked down immediately on the ground. Those who had failed to attack before took several steps backward to run away, but soon the driver charged at them and slowly started to gain speed until he reached them and hit their heads with his sheathed sword.

“What about you? Are you going to run away and leave these guys behind? That would be the smart thing to do.”